Maya transition guide
Basic differences between user interface concepts, terms, and hotkeys in Maya and Houdini.
Welcome
Maya™ to Houdini 9 transition guide
Welcome to Houdini! This guide shows a few basic translations between Maya™ and Houdini to help Maya users get up to speed more quickly.
We hope that Maya users will use this guide as starting point, and then explore Houdini’s unique node-based procedural workflow and all the benefits it has that don’t have equivalents in Maya.
Concepts
| Maya(tm) | Houdini |
|---|---|
| Attribute editor | Parameter editor (top right pane) |
| Hypergraph | Network editor (bottom right pane) |
| Shape nodes, modeling commands, inputs | Surface nodes |
| Construction history | Surface node network |
| Tool options box | Operation controls toolbar, Parameter editor |
| Manipulator | Handle |
| Edit > Parent/Unparent |
Connect object nodes together, or use Parent tool on the Modify shelf tab. |
Houdini treats objects and components slightly differently than Maya™.
In Maya, every piece of geometry you create is an object, and you combine objects using modeling commands to create new objects. An object’s construction history lets you access the nodes that contributed to the object.
In Houdini, the Geometry Container objects represents animate-able models, alongside other object types such as lights, cameras, and bones. Geometry container objects have a network of surface nodes inside that define the object’s geometry.
In Houdini, you often alternate between creating, combining, parenting, and animating objects at the Scene level, and modeling using surface nodes inside Geometry container objects (the Geometry level).
Viewing
| Function | Maya(tm) | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Tumble |
Alt
+
|
Space
+
|
| Track |
Alt
+
|
Space
+
|
| Dolly |
Alt
+
|
Space
+
|
| Box zoom |
Ctrl
+
Alt
+
|
Space
+
Ctrl
+
|
| Default view | A | Space + H |
| Show all | ⇧ Shift + A | Space + A |
| Show selected | F | Space + G |
| Function | Maya | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Toggle wireframe | 4 5 | W |
| Viewport options | Hotbox or panel menus | Floating menus in top-right corner of viewports. |
| Min/max view | Tap Space |
Space + B Viewport Ctrl + B - Pane |
| Shaded + wireframe |
Shading > Shading Options |
Shading icon menu on viewer toolbar >
|
| Viewport layout | Quick layout toolbar | Layout icon menu on viewer toolbar |
/
Selection
| Function | Maya(tm) | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Select tool | Q | S |
| Select by name | Outliner | / in network |
| Select ancestor |
| PgUp |
| Select descendant |
| PgDn |
| Toggle object/component | F8 | F8 |
| Select points | F9 |
2
|
| Select edges | F10 |
3
|
| Select faces | F11 |
4
|
| Function | Maya | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Convert selection | Select > Convert selection | Change component select mode |
| Align manipulator axes | Tool settings dialog | Right click the manipulator (handle) |
| Paint selection | Paint selection tool | Right-click Select tool > Brush Picking. |
| Loop edge selection | Select > Select Edge Loop tool | Select the first edge then press L |
| Grow selection | Select > Grow selection region | Alternate between selecting points 2 and faces 4 . |
Editing
| Function | Maya(tm) | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Create objects | Create menu |
Choose the geometry type after creating the object. |
| Template object | Display > Object Display > Template | Template flag on object node |
| Edit polygons | Edit mesh menu | Polygons shelf tab |
| Undo | Z | Ctrl + Z |
| Redo | ⇧ Shift + Z | Ctrl + Y |
| Repeat last command | G | Q |
See also reselecting geometry.
| Function | Maya | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Move | W |
T
|
| Rotate | E |
R
|
| Scale | R |
E
|
| Node-specific manipulator | T |
Enter
|
| Soft transform | Proportional Modification tool |
Move tool Soft radius option |
Animation
| Function | Maya(tm) | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Set key | S | K |
| Move object pivot | Ins | Ins |
| Auto-key | Status line button |
Auto-key button on playbar |
| Play animation | Alt + V |
|
| Next frame | Alt + . |
|
| Previous frame | Alt + , |
|
| Choose channels to key | Channel box | Scoping |
Maya users may want to turn off the auto-commit option.
| Function | Houdini |
|---|---|
| Graph editor |
Windows > Channel editor, click
|
| Dopesheet |
Windows > Channel editor, click
|
in top left corner. See 
in top left corner. See
Drag handles in the channel editor with
, not
.
Rendering
| Function | Maya(tm) | Houdini |
|---|---|---|
| Link lights and shadows | Link editor | Link editor pane type |
| Materials | Hypershade | Material palette (tabbed with network editor) |
| Render scene | Status bar button |
in toolbox |
| Render with settings | Render globals | Create a render node and render through it. |
Moving data
Houdini imports and exports Filmbox (FBX) format, allowing seamless transition of entire Maya scenes into Houdini.
If you only need to transfer geometry between Maya and Houdini, Houdini’s File surface node and Geometry render node can read and write common geometry formats such as OBJ.
See more information on FBX, the File surface node, and the Geometry render node.